For unwinding double-sidedly self-adhesive material on a reel there are a large number of unwinders which are tailored to the particular material, whether it be a narrow or else, possibly, wide adhesive tape or a wide adhesive sheet.
By way of example, EP 0 121 371 A1 discloses an apparatus which is used for placing a double-sided adhesive tape on packaging for cigarettes, inter alia. The apparatus comprises a means for moving the packaging material and a dispenser for supplying the adhesive strip to a location where it is to be brought into contact with the moving packaging material. The dispenser comprises a frame carrying                a support means for receiving a rotatable reel of the adhesive tape,        a guide means defining a tape path from the reel to said location,        a brake means, and        a drive means.        
The guide means is formed in turn by a fixed guide member and also a second guide member, which is mounted for a pivotal movement around a pin, in order to be movable relatively within the tape path in accordance with changes in the tension of the tape. Extending between the members are a tension spring and a slidable balance weight, which is carried by the second guide member and is adjustable so that the second guide member is in equilibrium about the pin.
The brake means is provided in order to reduce the rotational speed of the reel and is controlled by the relative motion of the members, whereby the brake means is released as the tension in the tape increases and applied when the tension in the tape decreases. The drive means serves for forced drive of the reel and so produces a rotational speed which becomes greater in dependence on an increase in the tension of the tape moving along said path.
In the papermaking industry, the finished paper is wound onto reels some of which are up to eight meters in width.
At the interior of the reels there is a core or sleeve, usually of cardboard, which at the beginning gives the reel the necessary stability in order to allow the winding operation. The winding operation starts by the application to the core in the longitudinal direction of a strip of adhesive, the beginning of the paper being fixed to this strip and thus to the core. The adhesive is normally a hotmelt adhesive, which is applied automatically in appropriate width by way of a nozzle, which for that purpose is caused to travel over the core in the longitudinal direction.
Since the plant and apparatus for processing hotmelt adhesive is complex and susceptible to faults, attempts have been made to replace the hotmelt adhesive by double-sided adhesive tapes.
To date, these adhesive tapes have normally been dispensed onto the core by hand using a manual unwinder adapted appropriately to the adhesive tape.